Antonio Villasenor-Baca

In Northeast El Paso is a small shop with B.B. King on the loudspeakers and bold green letters that read “Framing Concepts.” This is Alfredo Sanchez’s domain – a frame-making mecca that helped display the works of Gaspar Enriquez, Tom Lea, and Hal Marcus. Sanchez, now 67, has been framing for over 40 years, opening his own frame shop in 1995. “I’ve always been interested in art. High school, college, and stuff like that.,” he said.

Over the past 30 years in El Paso, the hard-core rock band At the Drive-In has mostly stood alone as the city’s prominent breakthrough group on an international level. But the music scene in the Sun City has changed in the 14 year hiatus of the iconic punk band – with music taste in the city diversifying, new venues opening, old ones closing and many bands have come out since then. If you’re from El Paso here’s who you should know. 1. Pissing Razors

This heavy-metal band formed in 1996 in El Paso, and although then-drummer Danny Garcia moved the band to New York, the band’s inception can largely be credited to the metal scene and love for heavy metal that continues to be a constant in El Paso.

On a sunny afternoon last March, Cuban journalist Rafaela Balanza Recasen made an unusual visit to the borderline that separates El Paso from Ciudad Juarez. On this, her first visit to the United States, she had no preconceived notions about the border, only that over the last few years thousands of Cuban citizens have crossed the border bridges on foot to seek asylum in the U.S. As the 57-year-old television journalist stood facing the border wall at Sunland Park, New Mexico, she fell silent and reflected on the dangerous journey that has driven many of her countrymen to flee the island and make their way through Latin America to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.“Before me (I see) the tall fence,” she wrote in her diary and later shared with UTEP students about the experience of seeing the border wall for the first time. “It is an infinite wall. I approach and sink my feet into the fine sand… The silence is all pervading. The blue sky seems ironic.

How much does El Paso love the top TV comedy among millennial viewers? When the Rickmobile came to town in September, bringing special merchandise from the animated show, Rick and Morty, El Pasoans got their portal guns out, got “schiwfty,” and flooded the Alamo Drafthouse. Rick and Morty, the Adult Swim show created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon has amassed a large following that only continues to grow after its third season. Fans say the show is different from other adult animated shows and quickly becomes addictive. “It was like a vortex, and I just started watching it and I couldn’t leave and stop watching it,” said Aaron Woods, 20, a UTEP student majoring engineering leadership with a minor in commercial music.

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